Finishing the recap series with the 41st through the 49th race, which featured the race’s fourth three-time winner, a Southern driver’s quick success and hard-luck drivers who finally break through.

Kalle Oakes writes that nothing can top the 1984 race, which was one of the most competitive and caution-filled 250s and ended with Mike Rowe becoming the first Maine driver to be champion.

The fans — absent a year earlier due to the pandemic — brought the noise in 2021 and Farmington’s Cassius Clark ended his family’s habit of close-but-not-quite, resulting in the best 250 the Sun Journal’s Wil Kramlich has experienced.

Recapping the 31st through 40th editions, which were highlighted by two big-name NASCAR winners, the Whorff one-two, and a two-timing outlaw.

The 250 makes legends but it also invites heartbreak. Kalle Oakes writes about the biggest close-but-not-quite moments in the race’s first 49 years.